Walking the dunes
A lone girl walks along the orange dunes of the Namib Desert.
A lone girl walks along the orange dunes of the Namib Desert.
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Dec, 2015Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took this photo in the Namib Desert near Sossuvlei, Namibia. This was the day before I proposed to my wife. We were staying at the Kulala Lodge and took a day trip into the desert to walk the dunes. Ahead of us was a young girl carefully walking the crest of the next big dune, perfectly framed by the rolling sands of the desert.Time
This was taken in the mid-to-late morning, just as things were starting to get hot. It was the first stop of the day on our dune-walking trip.Lighting
The lighting is obviously all natural. There is very little cloud cover in that part of Namibia, where they receive an average of around 1mm of rain per year, so the sun is very bright and very harsh, casting sharp shadows as it moves across the sky.Equipment
This was shot on a Sony NEX-5N, handheld. I was using the Sony SEL 55-210mm lens at 78mm, f/10 @ 1/250sInspiration
The trip we took to Namibia provided constant inspiration and amazing opportunities. This particular shot was one that I just spotted at the right time. Hundreds of tourists climb the dunes every day, so it is a challenge to get a shot that's not wholly full of people. But while I was walking along the crest of the dune, I spotted this one chance to get a single person in the frame. I liked the harsh shadows on the dune and the way that her arm mirrors the angles of the sand in the next dune.Editing
Normally, I play around a lot with photos, first in Adobe Lightroom, then in Skylum (formerly Macphun) Creative Kit and Luminar. In this instance, very little processing was needed. I cropped it to get the framing just right, spot-fixed a few water and/or sand spots from an imperfectly-clean lens (should've cleaned the camera and lens thoroughly before the trip!), and did a few minor tweaks to colour balance, saturation and contrast. But very minor overall.In my camera bag
I now shoot with a Sony a6000 (the logical successor to the NEX-5n I had for this shot). I carry a 50mm Sony Prime lens, which probably accounts for 2/3 or more of my shots. I also have the 55-210mm zoom I used in this shot for longer-range captures, and a Samyang 12mm ultrawide for landscapes and astrophotography (or close-quarter urban shots). I then have about four extra batteries, a couple extra memory cards, a few microfibre cloths and a lens brush and a couple of basic filters (ND1000, ND-grad, variable-ND and polariser), though I've only just begun to play around with what those can do.Feedback
This was absolutely an unplanned time-and-place photo (as most of mine are). So the only advice is to keep your eyes open and your camera at the ready for the moment inspiration strikes!
